Abstract

The Lisbon European Council in March 2000 set the objective for the Union to become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world within a decade. To contribute towards this strategy, the Commission proposes that a financial support programme be adopted to accompany national efforts for the transformation of Europe into a knowledge-based economy.

The programme will finance the following types of actions: - data collection and analysis concerning a revised set of benchmarking indicators; - studies to identify good practices in Europe; - workshops and studies to analyse the adjustment of industry to the structural change generated by digital technologies and the transformation of society; - support of the Information Society Forum; - support of targeted conferences, seminars or workshops; - financing of specific surveys, studies and expertise gathering activities in the area of network and information security.

The programme will last for 3 years (2003-2005) with a budget of ¿25m. Each year a specific work programme will be published containing the year¿s priorities. During its last year of execution the programme will be evaluated in order to assess its cost-effectiveness and to decide its usefulness for the future.

An amended proposal was published in April 2003 as http://icadc.cordis.lu/fep-cgi/srchidadb?ACTION=D&SESSION=&RCN=1995&CALLER=DOCS_LIB (COM{2003} 160 final).